Household refrigerator



Sept. 5, 1939. -r. 1. POTTER HQUSEHOLD REFRIGERATOR Original F iled oct'. 25, 1935 Hu w 7 INVENTOR 7/70/7415 ZfOTTEE A RNEY Se t; 5, 1939 PATENT OFFICE 2,171,712 7 HOUSEHOLD REFRIGERATOR Thomas I. Potter, Bnfialmli. Y., assign'or to Refrigeration Patents Corporation, Buffalo, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application October 25, 1935, Serial No. 46,691

Renewed September 9, 1938 8 Claims. (CI. 62-89) The present invention relates to household refrigerators of the type having two chambers, one of which is maintained at a food cooling temperature above the freeezing point and the other of which is maintained at a temperature far below the freezing point.

An object of the invention is to provide improved heat insulating means for the colder chamber.

3 A more specific object of the invention is to provide a refrigerator cabinet of the type described above in which there is a single door for the two chambers and an auxiliary inner door for the colder chamber. This double closure for the colder chamber preventing heat leakage to a greater degree than is possible with refrigerators of this type heretofore constructed in which a single door was used for both chambers. It will be understood that there is an advantage in using 9 a single door for two chambers rather than two separate doors for the chambers because this arrangement improves the appearance of the refrigerator. However, when the door is opened to gain access to food in the warmer chamber the colder chamber is at the same time exposed to atmospheric heat and consequently there is a loss of efficiency in this arrangement. This is particularly true because the relatively warmer chamber is the one in which foods most used are 50 kept, while the colder chamber is used mainly for storage of foods over comparatively long periods. The advantage, therefore, will be appreciated of having means for preventing exposure of the lower chamber every time the main door is opened 5 to provide access to the food chamber.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an inner door for the low temperature chamber which when opened will serve as a shelf for temporarily supporting food and articles that 40 are to be placed in or removed from the low temperature chamber.

With the above named objects in view and others which will appear hereinafter, I shall now describe a preferred embodiment of my inven- 5 tion and thereafter the novelty and scope of the invention will be pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawing;

Figure 1 is a view in perspective of a household refrigerator embodying my invention; and

Fig. 2 is a view in vertical section takensubstantially in the plane 2-2 of Fig. 1, but with the doors closed and the outer door shown in full except fora portion broken away at the upper end thereof.

55 In the drawing, I have used the reference numeral in to indicate the cabinet as a whole. As best shown in Fig. 2, the cabinet comprises three chambers disposed one above the other. The uppermost chamber is a food cooling chamber, the centralchamber I2 is a freeezing chamber, and 5 the bottom chamber l3 serves to house a heat pumping unit II which may be of standard construction. The latter chamber is closed by a door 15.

The chamber II is separated from chamber [2 10 by a partition wall l6 and chamber I2 is separated from chamber 13 by a partition wall 11.

It will be observed that the walls surrounding the chambers II and I! are packed with suitable insulation material l8 and that the thickness of the 15 walls surrounding chamber I2 is greater than that surrounding chamber II. The partition wall l6, however, is not as thick as the partition wall ll.

It will be understood, of course, that there is always a certain amount of heat transfer through any insulated walls. In other words, it is impossible to obtain perfect heat. insulation and there is a constant inflow of heat into chambers I l and I! from the surrounding atmosphere. Since, however, chamber I2 is to be maintained at a much lower temperature than chamber,

it is necessary to provide chamber l2 with heavier insulation.

In the chamber I! there is a refrigerating coil 20 in the form of a shelf which is located near the top of the chamber and serves to support trays (not shown) in which ice cubes may be quickly frozen. In the chamber ll there is a refrigerating coil 2! of the firmed type adapted to prevent the formation of frost thereon. The two coils 20 and 2| are connected in series in a refrigerant line connected to the heat unit It. This refrigerant line includes a pressure line 22 which supplies refrigerant to the coil 20 under control of an expansion valve 23. Refrigerant from the 4 coil 20 then runs through an extension 24 to the finned coil 2| in chamber ll and thence is led through a return line 25 to the compressor of the heatunit ll. The coils are so proportioned as to maintain the desired difference of temperature in the two chambers and since the coils are connected in series the coil 2| takes the surplus refrigerant from the coil 20. Operation of the heat unit is controlled by suitable means, here shown as a thermostat 26, located in the chamber H and controlling a switch 21 in the electric circuit 28 of an electric motor 29 which constitutes the driving element of the heat unit II. The struc- V ture so far described is not new.

The novelty of the present invention resides in be observed that the cabinet isrprovided with a doorway ll which is large enough to embrace the two chambers II and it. This doorway may be closed by a door II which amy be of standard construction and which preferably includes the usual gasket 32 carried by the door along the rim thereof and adapted to bear against the face of the cabinet surrounding the door opening 30 when the door is closed. The lower chamber I2 is provided with a separate doorway I4 adapted to be closed by an inner door ll. This inner door is preferably made of a pair of slabs 80 and 31 of insulation material with a packing ofinsulation material 38 between the slabs. The slabs. for instance, could be composed of porcelain, enamelled metal, or other material, such, for instance, as a phenolic condensate compound. This inner door 3! is preferably hinged at the bottom as indicated at 40 and is normally held in closed position by a suitable latch 4|. A handie 42 is provided for drawing the door to open position. This inner door is also provided with a gasket 43 surrounding the rim of the door and adapted to bear against the doorway 34.

In order to utilize the inner door as a shelf, I provide a pair of links 45 which are pivoted at 46 to the door at opposite sides thereof. Each link is formed with a slot 41 which engages a stud 48 projecting from the side wall of the chamber ii. The length of the slots 41 is such that when the door is opened it will be supported in a substantially horizontal position, as shown in Fig. 1.

Between the end of partition wall l6 and the inner face of the door 3| I provide a gasket 50 ,which is secured to the partition wall l6 and serves to prevent moist air from chamber II from filtering down between the inner and outer doors and condensing upon the inner door. It will be evident that the door 35 will be chilled through to its outer surface by its contact with the freezing air in chamber l2, despite the fact that it is formed of insulation material, because obviously the insulation will not be thick enough to form a heat seal in any measure comparable, to the heat impedance provided by the insulated walls surrounding the chamber I2. While the door 35 alone would not serve as a suitable insulated closure for chamber l2, it does serve in combination with the outer door 3| and also with the dead air space 5| between the two doors to maintain a very effective seal against entrance of heat from the outside atmosphere into the chamber l2. When the door 3| is opened to provide access to chamber H, the contents of chamber I! are not exposed to any inrush of warm air. It is only when occasionally it is desirable to gain access to chamber II that the door 35 is opened and then the door may be swung to the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2, to provide a shelf on which articles of food may be supported, while access is obtained to particles stowed away in the inner recesses of the chamber. The use of the door 35 as a shelf thus serves not only as a con- Venience but actually cuts down the period during which the chamber i2 is opened to the outside air because no time is lost in taking articles out of the chamber l2 and transferring them to a kitchen table, while would otherwise be out of reach. Furthermore, when the articles are placed on the shelf, they are supported on a chilled surface and do not absorb heat as they would if placed on a comparatively warm kitchen table.

access is obtained to articles which 2,171,712 the closureof the chambers ll and II. It will While I have described a preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that this is to be taken as illustrative and not limitative, and I reserve the right to make various changes in form, construction and arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention as pointed out in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A household refrigerator, comprising a cabinet formed with a heat insulating partition divid- 1 ing the interior of the cabinet into a pair of cooling chambers. means for cooling one of the chambers to a much lower temperature than the other, the walls of the cabinet being proportioned to provide greater thermal impedance to inflow of heat into the cooler chamber than into the relatively warmer chamber, the cabinet being formed with a doorway into which both of the chambers open, a main door adapted to close the said doorway, the cabinet being also formed with an inner doorway for the cooler of the two chambers, an inner door adapted to close said inner doorway. and means forming a seal between the partition and the main door when the doors are closed, the two doors being spaced to provide a dead air space therebetween.

2. A household refrigerator, comprising a cabinet formed with a heat insulating partition dividing the interior of the cabinet into a pair of cooling chambers, means for cooling one of the chambers to a much lower temperature than the other, the walls of the cabinet being proportioned to provide greater thermal impedance to inflow of heat into the cooler chamber than into the relatively warmer chamber, the cabinet being formed with a doorway into which both of the chambers open, a main door adapted to close the said doorway, the cabinet being also formed with an inner doorway for the cooler of the two chambers, an inner door adapted to close said inner doorway, and a gasket mounted along the outer edge of said partition and adapted to engage the main door when the doors are closed, the doors being spaced apart to provide a dead air space therebetween.

3. A household refrigerator, comprising a cabinet formed with a horizontal heat insulating partition dividing the interior of the cabinet into an upper and a lower cooling chamber, means for cooling the lower chamber to a much lower temperature than the other, the walls of the cabinet being proportioned to provide greater thermal impedance to inflow of heat into the lower chamber than into the upper chamber, a pair of doors for closing the lower chamber, the doors being disposed in spaced parallel relation when closed and the outer door of the pair being upwardly extended to close the upper chamber, and sealing means for preventing circulation of air into and out of the space between the doors when both doors are closed.

4. A household refrigerator, comprising a cabinet formed with a heat insulating partition dividing the interior of the cabinet into a pair of cooling chambers, means for cooling one of the chambers to a much lower temperature than the other, the walls of the cabinet being proportioned to provide greater thermal impedance to inflow of heat into the cooler chamber than into the relatively warmer chamber, the cabinet being formed with an outer doorway into which both of the chambers open, an outer door adapted to close said outer doorway, the cabinet being also formed with an inner doorway for the cooler of the two chambers, an inner door adapted to close said inner doorway and spaced from said outer 76 door, and sealing means for preventing circulation of air into and out of the space between the doors when both doors are closed.

5. A household refrigerator, comprising a cabinet formed with a heat insulating partition divide ing the interior of the cabinet into two chambers, means for cooling one chamber to a much lower temperature than the other, the walls of the cabinet being proportioned to provide greater thermal impedance to inflow of heat into the former chamber than into the latter chamber, a pair or doors for closing the former chamber, the doors being disposed in spaced parallel relation when closed and the outer door of the pair being extendedto close the latter chamber, and sealing means for preventing circulation of air into and out of the space between the doors when both doors are closed.

6. A refrigerator comprising a cabinet formed with two compartments and with heat insulation separating said compartments from each other and from the outside atmosphere, refrigerating meansfor abstracting heat from both of said compartments, the insulation of said compartments being adapted to ofler a higher resistance to inflow oi heat into one compartment than into the other, thermo-sensitive means in the latter compartment. for controlling said refrigerating means, an inner'door for closing the opening of the former compartment, and a single outer door for closing the openings of both of said compartments, said doors being spaced, and sealing means for preventing circulation of all into and out of the space between the doors when both doors are closed.

'7. A refrigerator comprising a cabinet formed with two compartments arranged one above the other and with heat insulation separating said compartments from each other and from the outside atmosphere, refrigerating means for abstracting heat from both of said compartments, the insulation of the lower of said compartments being adapted to offer higher resistance to inflow of heat than the insulation of the upper compartment, thermo-sensitive means in the upper compartment for controlling said refrigerating means, an inner door for closing the opening of the lower compartment, an outer door for closing the openings of both of said compartments, said doors being spaced, and sealing means for preventing circulation of air into and out of the space between the doors when both doors are closed. v I

'8. A household refrigerator, comprising a cabinet having heat insulating walls and provided with a heat insulating partition dividing the interior of the cabinet into a pair of cooling chambers, means for cooling one of the chambers to a much lower temperature than the other, the cabinet being formed with an outer doorway into which both of the chambers open, an outer door adapted to close said outer doorway, the cabinet being also iormed with an inner doorway for the cooler of the two chambers, an inner door adapted to close said inner doorway and spaced from said outer door, and sealing means for preventing the air in the warmer chamber from cir- --e culating into and out of the space between the doors when both doors are closed.

THOMAS I. PO'I'I'ER. 

